Faculty of Engineering (FE) organized a workshop titled “A Systematic Guide on Planning and Writing Fundamental Research Grant Proposals” on Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 11 AM in D-Building, AIUB permanent campus. The agenda of the workshop was to identify strategies and provide guidance for writing effective research proposals that are better aligned with funding agency goals and community needs. The distinguished speaker of the workshop was Dr. Nowshad Amin (Professor, Faculty of Engineering (EEE), AIUB, SMIEEE, IEEE-EDS DL (R10)).
Dr. Nowshad Amin began his speech by introducing himself with a brief biography and a short summary of the numerous grants and funds he has secured over the years. In the preface to his speech, he discussed the current state of research and development (R&D) in the universities of Bangladesh and brought attention to the relatively low research output. He encouraged the faculty members to take a more active role in pursuing research, and advised them to try for the Grant for Advanced Research in Education (GARE) from Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) next year. In the main body of his presentation, the speaker emphasized the need for research to be inspired by the actual needs of people and related to sustainable development goals (SDG). After providing an academic definition of the term “research”, he explained what writing a research proposal involves and what parameters need to be considered to make a project fundable. He strongly asserted the importance of understanding the guidelines, goals and needs of funding agencies, using the guidelines of Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) grant schemes as an example. After identifying the MOHE grants assigned for Fundamental, Trans-Disciplinary, Long Term and Prototype Research, Dr. Amin explained the assessment criteria for Fundamental Research in detail and walked the workshop participants through the process of writing the essential elements of a research proposal. He put extra emphasis on the selection of an appropriate, clear and unambiguous title, and provided examples of both successful and unsuccessful project titles, explaining the reasons behind the rejections in the latter cases. He also cautioned the audience to plan their projects carefully based on a realistic timeline and a budget with reasonable limits. In the last part of his speech, he detailed the duties of a project team leader and provided advice on fulfilling those responsibilities.
Following a short question answer session, Prof. Dr. ABM Siddique Hossain (Professor and Dean, Faculty of Engineering, AIUB) thanked the honorable speaker for sharing his valuable experience, and presented a token of appreciation to the speaker, concluding the workshop. The goal of this event was in perfect harmony with the Sustainable Development Goal of Quality Education (SDG 4)